Trib Translation

[May 7th, 2008]

The May 2 Portland Tribune carried a front-page “announcement” by company president Steve Clark, which said the twice-weekly paper will now print once a week and “employ fewer people in some departments.”

No “crocodile tears” here at the downsizing of Robert Pamplin’s seven-year-old paper—when a newspaper sheds jobs, everyone gets a little dumber about their city.

But Clark, apparently believing his readers were fools, tried to spin the news. He glossed over the inconvenient truths that printing once a week means the paper is cutting its biggest cost, and that the layoffs included the paper’s reporter covering sustainability and the reporter dedicated to the Web.

We try to translate some excerpts below:

Since its launch on Feb. 9, 2001, the Portland Tribune has been a journalism leader in the community.

Hi. Remember us?

We were the first to identify sustainability as the future of our communities….

We even tried pandering to the hippies.

On Monday, May 5, the Portland Tribune enters its next phase of innovative, cutting-edge journalism as the newspaper launches a more complete daily online newspaper…

We’ve got this website thing…

…that will be accompanied by a single weekly print edition to be published each Thursday.

…so with luck, nobody will notice that we’re cutting our print run in half.

We become even more environmentally sensitive by launching the nation’s most sustainable daily newspaper in America’s most sustainable community.

Nothing’s more sustainable than nothing.

We act in recognition of current U.S. economics…

Pamplin’s got a bunker. And Dobermans.

This means your best source of local news—on the Web and in print—just got better as we expand breaking coverage of Portland and regional news; provide sports and community-interest columns by Dwight Jaynes and Phil Stanford four days a week…

We’re firing reporters. Stanford will live-blog from Mary’s Club.

…and publish more human-interest features from Portland and the region.

Lots of pictures. Big pictures.

Innovation is not without risk and change.

Am I at 800 words yet?

Through the years, we have routinely been scorned by some, including bloggers who are prone to vitriolic negativity.

I Google myself hourly.

And to those who question our future,

And to our staff,

let me say that there will always be a place for journalists—great storytellers, who are trusted and relevant,

Have you considered fast food?

and businesses like ours that are committed to our clients, readers and the future of the communities that we serve.

At least my paycheck cleared.

—Steve Clark, Portland Tribune president

—George Orwell